Chapter 1213: One Hundred Strikes
Earth Horse pulled Earth Pig up from the floor.
The moment Earth Pig touched Earth Horse's palm, his brow furrowed into a deep "川" shape.
This tactile sensation was truly a bit too complex.
If touching Vermilion Bird felt like feeling a piece of fruit through a cloth wrapper, then touching Earth Horse felt like feeling a fruit basket through a cardboard box.
No... he wasn't even sure if it was a "fruit basket," only that it was something resembling one.
Because the sensation was so peculiar, Earth Pig held onto Earth Horse's hand for a long time without letting go, as if trying to confirm whether his perception was correct.
"Are you alright?" Earth Horse pulled her hand back and asked.
"I... I'm fine..." Earth Pig rubbed his chest and asked back in confusion, "Are *you* alright?"
"What could be wrong with me?"
"Alright then..." Earth Pig murmured.
Although Earth Pig had once been swayed by Earth Horse's temptation to go after Compensation Tiger, he had never actually touched her before.
Could it be that Earth Horse's body had always felt this complicated?
"Originally, I was going to let you die," Earth Horse said, pointing to the wound on her heel. "After all, it's thanks to you that my foot is injured."
"I..." Earth Pig was speechless, not knowing what to say.
"But since we're on the same team now, letting someone die isn't right." Earth Horse continued, "Go wait over there. I'll handle this noisy rooster."
"But your leg is injured too..." Earth Pig thought for a moment, then said, "How about you hold him off while I go find reinforcements?"
"No need." Earth Horse shook her head. "I've always had a trump card, but I just can't use it until the final moment."
"Final moment...?"
"Don't worry," Earth Horse said.
Dragging her injured foot, she walked step by step to Earth Rooster's side, looking down at him and the several Human Grade students behind him.
She remembered this Earth Rooster. If she recalled correctly, he had long since gone mad.
Day after day, year after year, he truly believed he was a noisy chicken.
It seemed everything Gold Silk Monkey said was right—even a Zodiac who retained their memories couldn't last too long.
"Big Horse!!" Earth Rooster shouted. "Traitor!! Go kill her now!!"
After his words, the students behind him remained motionless.
Even though Earth Horse appeared injured, in the end, she still had an Earth Grade body. As Human Grades, they had no way to oppose her.
Realizing no one was listening to him, Earth Rooster grew furious for a moment. He then turned, reached out, grabbed a Human Grade student by the collar, and threw him directly at Earth Horse.
Earth Horse raised her hand and lightly blocked. The hurled Human Grade student changed trajectory and slammed into the wall.
"When it comes to 'throwing things'... you're still far off," Earth Horse said. She reached behind her waist and pulled out a fist-sized iron ball.
Before Earth Rooster could figure out what was happening, Earth Horse took a short running step, exerted force with her less-than-agile foot, and hurled the iron ball fiercely at him.
Earth Rooster's expression changed instantly. He grabbed another student behind him and held him up as a shield. The iron ball struck the student square in the chest, sinking deeply into it. The sound of shattering bones was crisp and clear.
Although the Human Grade in his hands was dead, Earth Rooster discovered that the tall Earth Horse seemed to possess average strength.
A throw like that could kill a Human Grade, but it shouldn't inflict fatal damage on an Earth Grade.
"Looks big and tall!! But your strength is weak!!" Earth Rooster shouted. "We can tie her up and kill her!!"
With that, he dropped the dead Human Grade to the ground and turned to look at his other students.
These students were experiencing this situation for the first time. In the past, Earth Grades would fight among themselves and, at worst, only end up injured. But this time, people were actually dying. Driven by fear, they all involuntarily stepped back. Anyone who was too slow risked being used as a shield again.
"Give me something!!" Earth Rooster turned and yelled. "Give me a weapon!!"
After hearing this, one of the students tremblingly pulled a rope and a dagger from his waist and handed them to Earth Rooster with a slight shake.
Earth Rooster laughed as he took his weapons. With the rope in his left hand and the dagger in his right, he turned back to face Earth Horse. "Tie her up and kill her!! Tie her up and kill her one cut at a time!!"
Earth Horse said nothing. She only stared at Earth Rooster with a serious expression.
She knew she didn't have many opportunities—perhaps only two.
She had wanted to use both of those strikes on Celestial Horse, but she had never been sure she could land them. If she didn't practice on this Earth Rooster first, standing before Celestial Horse would only mean certain death.
The tense atmosphere between the two began to spread, and Earth Pig grew nervous again.
Earlier, Earth Horse had been almost entirely defeated by Black Sheep. How could she possibly beat this mad rooster with an injured body now?
Earth Horse paid no attention to the weapon in her opponent's hand and began to slowly approach.
Step by step, they entered each other's attack range. Without a word, Earth Rooster swung his dagger to stab. Earth Horse raised her left arm to block.
The dagger pierced straight into Earth Horse's forearm, the tip emerging from the other side.
Earth Horse paid no heed to her injured arm. Instead, she raised her right hand and placed it against Earth Rooster's chest. This soft, flimsy palm strike made Earth Rooster laugh again.
"Soft-footed Horse!! Soft-footed Horse!!"
Earth Horse slowly closed her eyes. Whether her trump card had truly recovered or not would depend entirely on this moment.
"One hundred Earth Grade attacks..." she murmured softly.
"Soft-footed...!"
**BOOM!!**
As soon as the words fell, a tremendous sound suddenly erupted.
Earth Pig beside her and the several Human Grades in the distance were knocked off balance, stumbling in all directions.
The sound was fast and loud, then abruptly stopped. It disappeared without a trace, leaving no echo behind, making it feel incredibly strange.
It was as if something overwhelmingly powerful had torn through space and vanished in an instant. The only thing that told everyone the sound was not an illusion was the pain in their eardrums.
Earth Pig snapped back to reality. He looked at Earth Horse and Earth Rooster again. They remained in the same position as before, motionless.
No... more precisely, Earth Horse's body was trembling, while Earth Rooster seemed unscathed.
"Damn it..." Earth Horse cursed under her breath. "I didn't expect the backlash on myself to be this bad..."
She pulled back her right hand, which was shaking, and looked down. She saw that almost all the fingers on that hand were broken, and her palm had turned bright red.
Earth Pig looked at Earth Rooster in disbelief.
He found that although Earth Rooster stood still in place, there was clearly a round hole the size of a palm in his chest.
The edges of the hole were extremely neat, as if a bullet moving at incredible speed had pierced through his body.
Earth Rooster slowly lowered his head, looked at his chest, and his expression gradually changed—What kind of attack was this?
Not only did it possess such devastating destructive power... but the pain hadn't even had time to travel through his body.